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MORE DAIRY PRODUCTS
REQUIRED BY BRITAIN
Minister on Meat Question
BRISBANE. Thursday. — Britain has
asked Australia to produce as much
dairy produce as possible, thus revers
ing an earlier reauest that the Com-
monwealth should limit its annual
output of butter to 100.000 tons and
cheese to 20, COO tons. This announce
ment was made by the Minister for
Agriculture (Mr. F. W. Bulcock) when
he officially opened the annual con
ference of the Selectors' Association of
Queensland.
Referring to the suggestion that
Britain had gone vegetarian, Mr. Bul
cock said that this should not mean
that the normal orderly expansion of
the Australian meat industry should
be slowed up. With proper representa
tion and crganisat'on the market lost
by the present policy of the Imperial
Government could be bridged, he said.
There were bright hopes for expansion
of their market for mutton and beef in
Asiatic countries. After the war, he
added, buying would probably be more
selective and demand would be only
for high quality.
The boom in wool values which oc
curred after the last world war was
unlikely after this war. Europe was cut
off from the wool exporting countries,
and that would cause a great Increase
in the use of synthetic wool. "I can
not attempt to answer to what extent
substitutes will displace primary pro
ducts after the war, and what prim
ary products will replace synthetic
products," he said.
The nresident of the association (Mr.
E. A. Thomas) said that participation
in a huge co-operative effort for finan
cial preservation robbed the growers
of the means of expressing satisfac
torily their dissatisfaction with the
manner in which the Empire wool pur
chasing scheme was introduced and
its economic effect on the producer.
As a selector he described the wool
purchase scheme as another manifes
tation of the unwillingness of the Gov
ernment to control the growers' or
ganisation when legislation of major
importance affecting the industry was
being introduced. If 135d. per lb. had
been taken as a rough index of the
cost of production, there was room for
revision of the figure in the face of
rapidly rising costs. The adverse effect
of enlistment of primary producers on
the production position was both seri
ous and risky. The war would bring
many changes into their economic sys
tem. He added: "We as growers must
be prepared to see that we are not
relegated to the position of merely be
ing shepherds and caretakers."
A motion approving of nationalisa
tion of industry and conscription of
man-power and wealth was carried. It
asked for the elimination of the five-
mile limit, which excluded many na
tional service trainees from service.
It was decided to. ask Mr. Bulcock to
give consideration to the unsatisfac
tory position arising in view of the
selling system of cattle, and to try to
have the cattle killed on owners' ac
count without undue delay, which
caused a loss In weight of up to 20
per cent.
Hi view of the present abnormal
conditions In the sale of wool abroad
it was decided to aalc for the suspen
sion of the wool levy, except that part
being used for local -reserves.
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